A recycling process for lithium-ion batteries already up and running, by Finnish state-owned energy services company Fortum could make dramatic reductions in their environmental footprint, the company has said.
Norwegian utility Statkraft has partnered with flow machine specialist redT on a fully-financed solar-plus-storage offering for the UK’s thriving C&I renewables market.
A contract with utility Southern California Edison (SCE) has led to Advanced Microgrid Solutions (AMS) supplying 2GWh of grid services from just 60MWh of energy storage during 2018, with one analyst dubbing the feat an “impressive milestone”.
Walking around Energy Storage Europe this year it was obvious that the show, like the market, has grown from a small handful of “strong believers” as one source put it, to a forward-looking show focused on a ‘business-as-usual’ scenario.
Sales of battery storage units to residential households in Germany are booming, but it’s the value of services the batteries can provide, rather than the hardware itself that offers a long-term economic opportunity, a Siemens representative has said.
Insurer Munich Re has launched what it claims is the world’s first long-term insurance plan for battery performance, signing up ‘all-iron’ flow battery maker ESS Inc as its first customer.
Topics previously off-limits due to commercial sensitivity or just a lack of experience from the field, were explored in depth at this year’s Energy Storage Summit in London.
Perhaps the biggest indicator of the recognition of behind-the-meter storage so far this year has been the acquisition of Sonnen by oil major Shell. CEO Christoph Ostermann spoke to Andy Colthorpe about why home storage uptake could be on a worldwide series of inflection points.
